By David Owen
June 20 – All 32 teams at Russia 2018 have now played at least one match, making it time to take Insideworldfootball’s first look at the latest World Cup Battle of Brands.
June 20 – Manchester City has renewed its regional partnership with Chinese firm PAK Lighting who are the club’s Official Lighting Partner in the country.
By Paul Nicholson
June 18 – The pictures flashed around the world of FIFA president Gianni Infantino sitting majestically between his two new best friends, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia on his right and Valdimir Putin on his left at the opening match of the 2018 World Cup, will have left FIFA’s high paying rightsholders wondering if there is another game in play that they are not part of.
June 18 – Russia’s 5-0 opening win over Saudi Arabia has resulted in an immediate £50,000 win for the LGBT community as a Paddy Power marketing gimmick looks set to cost the bookmaker a lot more than they expected.
June 18 – The work Internazionale have been doing in China is paying off with the country’s Monalisa Group having signed a partnership with the club.
By Paul Nicholson
June 18 – The controversial on-off sale of Italy’s Serie A TV rights have taken a new technology turn with Perform’s streaming service DAZN picking up a package of 114 matches a season in a three-year deal.
June 15 – With the US having opened up the market for legal sports betting nationwide, it now looks set to embrace another of Europe’s football phenomena, the growth of the football betting sponsorship dollar.
June 15 – LaLiga has Chinese automobile brand Dongfeng Fengguang as the Official China Regional Automobile Sponsor of LaLiga for the 2018-19 season.
By Paul Nicholson
June 14 – Egyptian and Saudi Arabian fans will be able to watch their teams play at the World Cup after a last minute announcement by broadcast rightsholder beIN Sport that 22 matches will be broadcast on their free-to-air channels. The dispute over beIN’s distribution in both countries has been bitter with the Qataris having distribution issues and the Saudis even pirating rights on newly launched broadcast-spoiler station BeoutQ.
June 24 – Premier League Manchester City has signed its first global betting partnership with online bookmaker Marathonbet. The UAE-owned club has previously resisted betting company sponsorship.
June 14 – Hyundai will be Atlético Madrid’s official automotive partner for the next three seasons with it’s logo displayed on the left sleeve of the first men’s and women’s team shirt in national competitions until 2021 in a deal which displaces Alfa Romeo.
By Mark Baber
June 13 – The dispute between authorities in Egypt and FIFA over the latter’s sale of exclusive World Cup broadcast rights in Egypt to Qatar-owned beIN sports has intensified with Egypt’s Competition Authority (ECA) saying it will oblige FIFA to allow the state broadcaster to broadcast 22 matches, including those of the Egyptian national team.
June 13 – The trend for federations, leagues and clubs to sign regional sponsorships is extending to major events with FIFA announcing, two days before the kick-off of the 2018 World Cup in Moscow its first regional sponsorship for Africa.
June 13 – LaLiga champions Barcelona have ended a 16-year merchandising rights deal with Nike to form a new company which will manage the club’s retail, licensing and merchandising activity.
June 12 – Tottenham Hotspur have signed a new long-term agreement with hotels booking website Hotels.com that will include preferential discounts for Spurs signed up to the website’s loyalty programme.